[236] "Durable enjoyment is given to man only by reality; only those desires have serious significance which have reality as their foundation; success can be expected only in those hopes that are awakened by reality, and only in those deeds which are accomplished with the aid of the forces and circumstances presented by it"**.

Such was the new conception of "reality." In saying that it had been worked out by contemporary thinkers from the obscure hints of transcendental philosophy, Chernyshevsky had Feuerbach in mind. And he set forth Feuerbach's conception of reality quite correctly. Feuerbach said that sensuality or reality is identical with truth, i.e., that an object in its true sense is given only through sensation. Speculative philosophy held that representations of objects, based only on sensory experience, do not correspond to the actual nature of objects and must be verified by means of pure thought, i.e., thought not founded on sensory experience.

Feuerbach resolutely rose up against this idealistic view. He asserted that representations of objects based on our sensory experience fully correspond to the nature of these objects themselves. The trouble is only that our fantasy often distorts these representations, which consequently come into contradiction with our sensory experience. Philosophy must expel from our representations the fantastic element that distorts them; it must bring them into accord with sensory experience. It must return mankind to the undistorted contemplation of actual objects that prevailed in ancient Greece. And insofar as mankind transitions to such contemplation, it returns to itself, because people who submit to fantasies can themselves be only fantastic, not actual beings. According to Feuerbach, the essence of man is sensuality, i.e., reality, and not fantasy or abstraction...

[242-243] "When we enter society, we see around us people in uniform and non-uniform frock coats or dress coats; these people have five and a half or six feet, and some even more, in height; they grow or shave the hair on their cheeks, upper lip, and beard; and we imagine that we see men before us. This is a complete delusion, an optical illusion, a hallucination, nothing more. Without acquiring the habit of independent participation in civic affairs, without acquiring the feelings of a citizen, a male child, as he grows up, becomes a being of male sex, of middle years, and then advanced years, but he does not become a man, or at least does not become a man of noble character"*.

In humane and educated people, the lack of noble courage strikes the eye even more than in dark people, because a humane and educated person loves to talk of important matters. He speaks with enthusiasm and eloquence, but only so long as the conversation does not turn to the transition from words to deeds. "As long as there is no question of deeds, but only a need to fill idle time, an idle head, or an idle heart with conversations and dreams, the hero is very bold; when matters come to the point of directly and precisely expressing one's feelings—the majority of heroes begin to falter and feel an awkwardness of speech. Only the very few, the bravest, manage somehow to gather all their strength and with a sluggish tongue express something that gives a dim notion of their thoughts.

But let someone try to seize hold of their desires, to say: you want this and that; we are very glad; now begin to act, and we will support you—at such a remark, one half of the bravest heroes falls into a swoon, others begin to

* Works, vol. I, pp. 97-98.